Talk:Smithers, British Columbia

Untitled

I just removed this claim from the article:

"The town of Smithers (which is close to Burns Lake) may have been the inspiration for the Waylon Smithers character from the popular TV show The Simpsons."

This sounds very apocryphal/coincidental to me. Can anyone provide any documentation for it per WP:CITE? --Dvyost 08:39, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

This article was obviously written by someone who lives near Smithers but not in it. Much of the info on this page is false and serves to remind me to be careful in considering how much of each article on Wikipedia is factual.209.82.97.10 06:55, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

UPDATED...SOMEONE HAS SINCE GONE THROUGH AND CORRECTED THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE...WELL DONE.209.82.97.10 06:06, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

First incorporated Village in 1921?

I dont believe that. There are some settlements in BC, which are much older. --Eingangskontrolle (talk) 06:14, 5 October 2009 (UTC)

Jewish Community

I have to say that I do find this section to be of dubious factuality for several reasons: 1) the 2001 Census listed a total of zero Jewish people in Smithers that year.[1] 2) No directory of Synagogues on the internet show any Synagogue in Smithers. 3) The references added recently that only give an authors name, date and page number are not sufficient.

I would like to see better refereneces on the "Jewish Community" in Smithers in this article than the one given or at least add a title for the work or and ISBN number. Also, an explanation of why the 2001 Census shows no Jewish residents would be helpful in removing several editor's doubts. It seems odd to have a fair sized section on a Demographic that apparently doesn't exist. If this information is provided, I will be happy to not delete the section. User:Tartessos75 11 January 2010

To clarify my earlier edits here in reinstating the section, an editor with a history of anti-Semetic edits blanked the section with no explanation. I restored the sourced material. However, if the consensus on this tak page is that material is dubious and disproven, I'd have no objection to it being removed from the article. Dayewalker (talk) 04:21, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

:Your assertion that "No directory of Synagogues [sic] on the internet [sic] show any Synagogue [sic] in Smithers" is ridiculous. Have you personally checked every directory? Obviously you haven't. You don't even seem to posses basic proficiency in the English language as you insist on capitalizing 'synagogue' even though it is not a proper noun yet you did not capitalize 'Internet' despite the fact that it is.

Despite your ineptitude, however, by mere chance you are correct. There are no Jews in Smithers. They were all killed during the Holocaust. --Mozzul-San (talk) 05:27, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

I don't believe it! A few antisemitic vandals show up and you guys are ready to delete a perfectly good, well-referenced section. It has more references than the rest of the article FFS. --Pachavi (talk) 05:40, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

:::Apparently you've never been to Smithers. Webley455 (talk) 05:48, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Looking at the Statscan source about demographics referred to in the article, it says the Jewish population in Smithers is zero. The "David Meir" and "Alexander Cole" sources do not provide the title and searching those name in the index of local libraries and in google produces no obvious link. They could be fakes. Webley455, if your remark indicates that you have been in Smithers, perhaps you could provide a source for the content. Unless this section can actually be sourced, it should be removed. --KenWalker | Talk 15:30, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

If the Interior News has ever had a reporter named Alexander Cole, Google doesn't know about it. --KenWalker | Talk 15:42, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Making no comment here on the actual content of the article, but I should point out that Webley455 is now indef blocked as a sockpuppeter who also ran attack accounts on this page. He's not going to respond, nor should anything he said be taken seriously unless it is backed up with reliable sources. Dayewalker (talk) 17:49, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

To whom it may concern,

My name is Richard Haskins and I am a bit of history buff. I am particularly interested in the history of my hometown of Smithers. While I don't expect you to take my word for it I can affirm that the section on Smithers' Jewish community is accurate to the best of my knowledge. While I do not usually make use of Wikipedia — this dispute exemplifying my rationale for not doing so — I am posting here on behalf of the young gentleman who uses the pseudonym Pachavi. I have so far added one book reference to the section complete with ISBN. It is a very good book, written by Mr. Robert Shervill as part of the town's project to commemorate its 60th anniversary. Please understand that it is hard to come by quality resources (particularly with an ISBN) as Smithers is a small community with a relatively short history. As for the data from Statistics Canada, the ethnicity section of the Canadian census is notoriously ambiguous. I am of Scottish and German ancestry but I've always filled in "Canadian" on my census forms. I suspect this is the case with many Smithereens and Smithereens Jews in particular.

Richard Haskins, M.Sc. —Preceding unsigned comment added by RHaskins (talk • contribs) 01:53, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Useful addition, thanks for coming up with this and for your other comments. I see that the Shervill book is widely found in various collections indexed in google. By the way, there is no rule that a source must have an isbn number. That is only an example of the inadequacy of the cites given for the other sources for this section. A better example would be that the Meir cite doesn't provide a title. Any leads on what that publication might be? --KenWalker | Talk 16:13, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

I don't know if this belongs here, but I live in Smithers right now, and I would have to walk MILES to find a synagogue, or a Jew for that matter. If somebody can tell me where it is located and I'm not looking hard enough, please tell me where, and I'll take photos of the area so you can show it to me. (ALso, I've been in the museum many times, and haven't noticed the photo of 'rabbi glatzer'. strange.) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Stuntology (talk • contribs) 03:02, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

I own a copy of the Shervill book, Smithers From Swamp to Village and it makes not mention of any Rabbi or the name "Glatzer" as claimed by RHaskins and the reference he gave in the article to Rabbi Glatzer. However, on page 94 it does give a breakdown of the origins of the 999 residents counted by the Federal Bureau of Statistics at "the outset of the Depression". In addition to English (339), Irish (154) and others, it lists one (1) "Hebrew". Also, I noticed that although the 2001 Census, under Religion, lists "0" Jewish residents, other districts in the Bulkley Valley show a total of 35 who give their religion as Jewish. This should relieve some of the skepticism. User:Tartessos75

I admit it! The whole thing is a hoax. There are no synagogues in Smithers and Glatzer never existed. The Shervill publication was falsely cited and the David Meir publication and the article from The Interior News do not even exist. The photo isn't from the Smithers Museum but rather from the first page of a Google Image Search for "old rabbi." [2] Despite the blatant obviousness of this hoax, I managed to trick Wikipedia for over a year! [3] Hilarious.

For the record, all of the user accounts associated with promoting this hoax are mine and Mr. Haskins is not a real person. --Pachavi (talk) 05:06, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Actually, the section was added a year ago and soon called into question and soon removed until you added it again a couple of weeks ago. So it was there a year ago, but not "there for a whole year". Nice try.

Notable Residents - Joseph Coyle

I have recently made edits to the Notable Residents section to this page. I added the inventor of the egg carton, Joseph Coyle. This has since been taken down by Rhododendrites. I would like to request that Joseph Coyle be added back to the list of notable residents because his invention of the egg carton is important to society making his roots worth noting. You can do a quick search to see that what I have said is accurate. Here are some links http://www.bcnorth.ca/magazine/pages/jim/egg/egg1.htm and http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bc-inventor-created-better-way-to-carry-eggs/article16118691/ Prime7919 (talk) 23:29, 6 February 2014 (UTC)

Edited population & demographics

I revised the population data to reflect the 2016 census. There was quite a discussion about demographics, but that information was not provided in an accessible way by the current census, so I removed it. The number of households was also not included because there were three different numbers given in the census. Canadianknowledgelover (talk) 20:57, 21 October 2017 (UTC)Canadianknowledgelover